As a matter of fact I no longer will fly international or continental because you have no idea who is on the plane with you. Could there be another hijacker on there? In this crazy world anything is possible.
I’ve just gotten fed up with the decades-long decline in the quality of service. I haven’t flown in almost ten years. The last time was when my wife and I had to go from VT to SC house hunting. The flights were late and re-routed, connections were missed, delays were intolerable, and my wife’s mood got darker and darker. Now they’ve added COVID idiocy, Service Animals that simply game the system, and Russian Roulette third-party maintenance and servicing. I’ve sworn that unless I have to go coast to coast in under three days, I will drive.
Not just American travellers but anyone from the West these days.
Unless it is a family emergency, you will not see this retired grumpy old man flying commercial.
That bulls eye depends on who you are and what is your politics, and it has been painted by your federal government since 2018 … at least.
The basketball player will, hopefully, go back to obscurity.
John/Ed- ON the money!
Bad- Good point, I hadn’t thought about folks overseas.
WSF- Understood.
Jamie- You’ve got that right!
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I remember flying late at night when I could stand up, stretch and walk over to the cockpit’s entrance and talk to the pilots.
911 ruined commercial flying for me.
If I win the lottery (1st gotta buy a ticket, if I ever remember) I acknowledge that I may start flying again … general aviation. That is the lifestyle I know will change for me if I had lots of money.
If given the choice, I’d only fly for international travel, and that when I had to. I agree on the mess, hassle, lack of comfort, et al. I want my airplane back, except . . . Even with additional ferry tanks, it wouldn’t have made it from Gandar to Greenland. (150 HP Citabria)
Jamie- Yeah, those were the days…
TXRed- Umm… yeah, you’d be a ‘tad’ short. By about 900 or so miles…
It’s all fun and games, until a small group, or groups, hereabouts decides to start targeting Russian diplomatic personnel in the West, and mailing their parts back, pending the release of other Russian-held hostages. And such hostage-takers being NGOs, bound by none of the rules for civilized behavior that even the spy agencies adhere to.
“Release Person X, and Sergei will be recovered fully functional, with at least nine of his remaining fingers intact. Do it not, and we’ll decorate bridges and such with his body parts, daily, until we work our way up to his neck. Your move, Chief.”
Mark my words, it’ll happen. Probably should have already, in fact.
Then the fun begins, and some bright, enterprising lads start putting the bag on a few Capitol (or any other) police officers, (substitute government bureaucrats, congressional staffers, or any other minor government functionaries as you will) and offering the same sort of deal if the J6 political prisoners get released on bail pre-trial, and/or have their Constitutional rights completely restored, on peril of the same deal.
“We found ten police officers from various agencies sitting in our dungeon. Here are their badges and IDs. If the J6 defendants all get unconditional pre-trial release tomorrow, you won’t get these officers’ heads dropped off unattached to their bodies all around various locales in 48 hours. Which will be 24 hours after we post their last breath on YouTube and upload the links to every news organization in the Western world. Dealer’s choice.”
It’s easy to never negotiate with terrorists until the heads of their victims start showing up on public benches hither and yon.
When governments abandon the pretense of the rule of law, they must learn what it’s like to live beyond its protection just like anyone else would. Such actions always have consequences, and they should sting notably.
At this point, I’ll take the 6-7 days and drive to the other coast. With reports of cockpit/pilot emergencies coming out, the chances of something Going Wrong get a lot worse.
Too bad there aren’t options like a Catalina or Mariner for TXRed, with a capable copilot. Of course, the tradeoff of transatlantic fuel vs. book cargo could get awkward. 🙂
As a matter of fact I no longer will fly international or continental because you have no idea who is on the plane with you. Could there be another hijacker on there? In this crazy world anything is possible.
I’ve just gotten fed up with the decades-long decline in the quality of service. I haven’t flown in almost ten years. The last time was when my wife and I had to go from VT to SC house hunting. The flights were late and re-routed, connections were missed, delays were intolerable, and my wife’s mood got darker and darker. Now they’ve added COVID idiocy, Service Animals that simply game the system, and Russian Roulette third-party maintenance and servicing. I’ve sworn that unless I have to go coast to coast in under three days, I will drive.
Not just American travellers but anyone from the West these days.
Unless it is a family emergency, you will not see this retired grumpy old man flying commercial.
That bulls eye depends on who you are and what is your politics, and it has been painted by your federal government since 2018 … at least.
The basketball player will, hopefully, go back to obscurity.
John/Ed- ON the money!
Bad- Good point, I hadn’t thought about folks overseas.
WSF- Understood.
Jamie- You’ve got that right!
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, I remember flying late at night when I could stand up, stretch and walk over to the cockpit’s entrance and talk to the pilots.
911 ruined commercial flying for me.
If I win the lottery (1st gotta buy a ticket, if I ever remember) I acknowledge that I may start flying again … general aviation. That is the lifestyle I know will change for me if I had lots of money.
If given the choice, I’d only fly for international travel, and that when I had to. I agree on the mess, hassle, lack of comfort, et al. I want my airplane back, except . . . Even with additional ferry tanks, it wouldn’t have made it from Gandar to Greenland. (150 HP Citabria)
Jamie- Yeah, those were the days…
TXRed- Umm… yeah, you’d be a ‘tad’ short. By about 900 or so miles…
It’s all fun and games, until a small group, or groups, hereabouts decides to start targeting Russian diplomatic personnel in the West, and mailing their parts back, pending the release of other Russian-held hostages. And such hostage-takers being NGOs, bound by none of the rules for civilized behavior that even the spy agencies adhere to.
“Release Person X, and Sergei will be recovered fully functional, with at least nine of his remaining fingers intact. Do it not, and we’ll decorate bridges and such with his body parts, daily, until we work our way up to his neck. Your move, Chief.”
Mark my words, it’ll happen. Probably should have already, in fact.
Then the fun begins, and some bright, enterprising lads start putting the bag on a few Capitol (or any other) police officers, (substitute government bureaucrats, congressional staffers, or any other minor government functionaries as you will) and offering the same sort of deal if the J6 political prisoners get released on bail pre-trial, and/or have their Constitutional rights completely restored, on peril of the same deal.
“We found ten police officers from various agencies sitting in our dungeon. Here are their badges and IDs. If the J6 defendants all get unconditional pre-trial release tomorrow, you won’t get these officers’ heads dropped off unattached to their bodies all around various locales in 48 hours. Which will be 24 hours after we post their last breath on YouTube and upload the links to every news organization in the Western world. Dealer’s choice.”
It’s easy to never negotiate with terrorists until the heads of their victims start showing up on public benches hither and yon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njFOIvoN9pc
When governments abandon the pretense of the rule of law, they must learn what it’s like to live beyond its protection just like anyone else would. Such actions always have consequences, and they should sting notably.
At this point, I’ll take the 6-7 days and drive to the other coast. With reports of cockpit/pilot emergencies coming out, the chances of something Going Wrong get a lot worse.
Too bad there aren’t options like a Catalina or Mariner for TXRed, with a capable copilot. Of course, the tradeoff of transatlantic fuel vs. book cargo could get awkward. 🙂